Aspirin and Cancer

A small, prospective, observational study of 313 patients with small-cell lung cancer found no association between aspirin use and survival or metastasis.14

A meta-analysis of 18 observational studies that included 19,835 patients similarly found no overall association between aspirin use and incidence of lung cancer, though 2 case-control studies with heterogeneity demonstrated a significantly decreased risk of disease (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.56-0.91).15

A case-control study of 823 and 1034 men with and without prostate cancer, respectively, demonstrated that daily use of aspirin for over 3 years significantly reduced the risk of advanced prostate cancer (T3: OR, 0.35; 95% CI, 0.17-0.73; T4: OR, 0.22; 95% CI, 0.08-0.60) and disease recurrence among African American men.18

Multiple Myeloma

A meta-analysis of 5 observational studies including 332,660 adults found no association between aspirin use and the risk of multiple myeloma (MM).19

A prospective analysis of the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and Nurses’ Health Study that included 2,395,458 person-years demonstrated that regular use (at least 5 times per week) of 325 mg of aspirin significantly reduced risk of MM by 39% (HR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.39-0.94). Continuous regular use of 11 years or longer was also associated with lower risk of MM (HR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.41-0.95).20

References

Cao Y, Nishihara R, Wu K, et al. The population impact of long-term use of aspirin and risk of cancer. JAMA Oncol. 2016;2:762-9.

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